Friendship Drive Charging...

by Connie Spaceplone

chapter 11: one mind, two bodies

By the time Pinwheel returned from his pie-binge induced belly ache, I was already on a glide towards the surface port Cliff's Hub Industrial holdings. Following ATC instructions, I settled down on pad 08. The port was right inside a sprawling metropolis. Mountains and canyons of metal, plastic and concrete forming factories, warehouses, and multi-story residential dwellings stretched out as far as the eye could see. Pinwheel used the local services interface to sell our load of 621 tons of cobalt. I opened my rear cargo ramp and the handlers already got to work unloading my cargo hold. The next thing to do would be deciding on our next trade route. Industrial economies often trade back and forth between agricultural ones. After aggregating the market data, I concluded that the two most profitable routes away from cliff's hub would be to an agricultural station called "Blossom Valley", just 11.3 lightyears from here. Pinwheel said, "It seems we can pick up either organic fertilizer, or farming machinery."

I replied, "Everypony knows that organic fertilizer is a euphemism. Can we buy the farming machinery instead?"

"But it's all in sealed containers." Pinwheel countered.

"Still, it makes me uncomfortable loading that in me." I objected.

"I understand." my commander relented. "We will buy the farming machinery."

"But first, let's check out the local stores and sights. It's been too long since I’ve been in such a large city. The only buildings I can see here are the port tower, a local warehouse, and an actual skyscraper with tremendous dimensions! Shall we explore this city?"
I lowered my shipself's head and opened my mouth so that my avatar and Pinwheel could exit. Pinwheel took half a step off my tongue and paused. "I'm getting my scarf and boots." He announced, turning around and trotting back inside. He soon reemerged properly dressed for the outdoors.
We walked away from my shipself, looking at all the tall buildings, shops, and ponies walking around. We didn't have a set destination in mind; we just wanted to look around and enjoy the sights, smells, and newest sounds.
"I'm receiving a transmission from the port authority. They are asking if we will be back soon." mentioned to Pinwheel.
He frowned, "I don't want to be rushed. We just got here!" He sat down for a moment and thought. "Tell them we’ll be out for another few hours at least, if not the whole day."

"Sent. They say they want us to clear the landing pad. Apparently they get a lot of traffic. I have received an address of a parking lot where we can stay the night on a secondary channel sent with the comms signal. Shall I program our destination into the navigational systems?"

"Sounds good to me."
I let my avatar display a projection of our path on her face windows. At the same time, I let my shipself rise up and start walking in the assigned direction. Despite its slow, lumbering movements, my shipself was moving considerably faster than my avatar and Pinwheel due to its greater size. Even with the HFMP reducing the effective weight of the ship compared to the surface considerably, we could feel the ground vibrate with each of its steps.
I let my shipself walk along the wide street, while Pinwheel and my avatar took the route through the pedestrian area between the elevated buildings. With Pinwheel and my avatar walking among the crowds of other ponies going about their daily lives, I thoroughly enjoyed watching the scenery of the large capital city we found ourselves in.
Ponies walking in and out of shops, buying snacks from street vendors, talking to each other about this and that. The atmosphere was one of a bustling, lively town center of a large and technologically advanced city. Large walls could be seen looming above the buildings in the distance framing the street in front of us with gates to let spaceships in and out.
Along the sides of the streets, an advanced integrated billboard system was used to show targeted advertisements to each passerby.
Deciding to have a little fun shopping, Pinwheel and I entered a clothing store, which had us go through a holographic model showcasing the latest fall fashions of that year.
"Are you looking for anything specific?" Asked the store's attendant as we entered.

"Not really, do you have anything you'd recommend?"

She smiled and levitated out a few pieces for Pinwheel to inspect more closely. Compared to the things shown on billboards outside, these clothes were less bold and less, overall, extravagant.
For me, she displayed a few ship kits. Spoilers, wing decoration, paint jobs, colored thruster emissions.
These items added nothing to a ship's functionality, but were a great way to personalize one's vessel. By mixing and matching these kits, one could create a unique outward appearance that showed the personality and interests of a ship.
I decided to try a kit that added small winglets to the outsides of my thruster and also a gold and black paint job. As soon as I touched the models of these items, two unicorns approached me from either side and applied a preview to my avatarself body, using holographic projection magic. The looks were applied directly to my avatar, and the projectors did a good job predicting my movements
While the paint job looked good, the wing decorations, it seemed like they got worse when I applied them onto my ship.
"Hey... is it just me or do these wings look weird?"

Pinwheel looked me over. He inspected me closely, walking around me, not saying anything except "hmm." and "aah."
"Oh come on, Commander, just say something."

He said, "Those aerodynamic winglets imply a level of speed and maneuverability that I just can't picture coming from you.”
I looked back at my wing-mounted engine pods and wiggled them a bit. Again, the preview followed the movements almost perfectly.
My commander continued, "I feel like these items are designed for ships much much slimmer than you," playfully poking my side with his hoof. "You're much too curvy and opulent for these slender little wings."

I agreed with his assessment. After all, an outfit should match a pony's type and personality.
The store's attendant explained their customer loyalty rewards program called "ARX", where one could perform certain actions related to their brand and the store would reward me with "loyalty points", which could then be traded in for more products.
But the program had a weekly cap that was so low that I'd have to participate for at least a couple more weeks to exchange my accumulated points for anything meaningful.
That time would be better spent actually working and buying items with bits earned through real work. We declined to participate in this racket. In the end, Pinwheel bought a nice shirt and I got a slightly more pale paint job and crimson red thruster exhaust.
All the time, the projector unicorns did an amazing job. "Wow, your precision is impressive." coming from a mechanical being like me, that was high praise. And Pinwheel added, "I'm imagining what a choreographed dance or a martial arts exhibition from you must look like."
The two projector unicorns just smirked, and then knowingly nodded at each other, and walked to a more open space inside the store, facing each other.
"No way. I was only joking." My commander said, but we were still excited for what they would display for us.
They started projections of two pegasus ponies dressed in the traditional robes, hovering in the air. Their projections bowed at each other, and then began a fight. I did ask for a choreographed dance or a martial arts exhibition. With the elegant movements of the ancient pegasus aerial martial arts form known as Wing Chun, we were presented with a bit of both.
The battle went back and forth, with the pegasi changing the flow of combat to offense and defense, going from air grappling, to spin attacks, circular strikes then to specialized attacks;
not only was it impressive that they performed this aerial combat so well in the confined space of the store, the unicorns' knowledge of pegasus anatomy and flight physics made the combat realistic.
"Impressive" does not even begin to describe the feat.
Pinwheel and I watched the fight fascinated, and the other visitors of the store watched at the sidelines with awe. The fight ended with no clear winner as the mares decided to save their strength to continue helping customers later.
Quite an experience, it was!
With our purchases made, we exited the store and continued on our way to the parking lot where my shipself was waiting and also had its modifications applied. On the way, we were approached by a spaceplone avatar. It was an Imperial Clipper type spaceplone. He asked us, "Hey, do you guys happen to go to the Orimsari system and could take me along?" Pinwheel listened to this request and then looked at me expectantly. I replied, "It's on the way. Only a 8.46ly detour."

"Sounds good to me. We leave tomorrow. Does that work for you?" to which the clipper replied "Sure, that works. Glad I don't have to make the trip alone." I said, "We are parked at lot 32b. Where is your shipself?" The clipper smiled and said, "Oh, it's probably around 240ly that direction, doing its own business." gesturing vaguely with a hoof to the side.
I was confused. What had happened that disconnected his avatar-to-ship telepresence link? Was his shipself lost? But my commander stepped closer to the clipper knowingly and said, "You're a member of the cult of divergent minds. I've heard about you."
"I haven't." I interjected.
The clipper replied warmly "Although we prefer not to use the term 'cult', you are correct, Commander.” and looking at me, he continued his explanation “We intentionally sever the synchronization link between our shipself and avatarself, continuing existence as separate individuals. After a time apart, we meet again. And we don't use the Nested Entity Simulator to reconcile our minds. Instead we approach each other as individuals, hoping the discussions lead us to a more enlightened understanding of the self and the nature of friendship. My name is Shrugging Matter, by the way. Ship manufacturers often neglect to include our community in the database they supply their ships with."
I shook my head. The entire premise of this 'religion' was absurd. "With good reason! We spaceplones are designed to have one mind in two bodies! That’s what our programming expects! What you are doing is unnatural and is deservedly called a cult. Come, Pinwheel, let's leave."

My pegasus commander stared at me in confusion for a moment, and then shouted "Connie! How can you say something so intolerant and insensitive? As your commander, I demand that you apologize immediately!"

The clipper maintained his smile. "Oh, that's okay. How can I expect Connie to understand the nature of what I'm doing when that's the very thing I'm trying to figure out myself?" When neither of us spoke, Shrugging continued, "And when we discover how to exchange ideas without fundamental disagreement, we will have achieved zero intolerance."

Pinwheel was affirmed in his resolve to take the clipper with us as passenger and said, "I say you can find more in common with each other than you might think." It appeared that there was no chance in trying to convince my commander otherwise. I tried to adopt an attitude of open mindedness towards the clipper and his philosophy for the sake of stability on the ship. "I'm sure we'll manage."

The three of us started heading to my shipself, when I pointed out that I didn't have a passenger cabin equipped. Pinwheel dismissed the concern "No problem. He can stay in my captain's cabin. I often sleep right in the cockpit anyway. Makes me feel closer to my ship." He nuzzled me gently as he said that, without all the anger from my earlier "judging" of Shrugging's religion.
We arrived at my shipself where we boarded through my mouth. My avatar followed Shrugging into the captain's cabin to make sure our guest was settling in well. The clipper immediately went for the narrow space between the elevated floor and the high window, just like my commander did when seeing the room for the first time. It was understandable.
That spot was the coziest in the room. Shrugging was already lying down and looking at the window, a peaceful smile on his face. "Thank you for letting me stay here. I'm already feeling at home."

I nodded, and said "If you need anything, just ask any time, the room can listen. I'll let you get some rest now."

He closed his eyes, "Thank you. And good night.”
I closed the door behind me, and returned to the cockpit.
I morphed the cockpit's pilot seat into a wider version of itself so Pinwheel and I could lie on it next to each other.

As Pinwheel lay there, looking at the city's skyline and the night sky through my cockpit glass window, he brought up the store's projector unicorns again.

"I wonder why they decided to work in a clothes store. With their ability to make such exciting images they could work in the cinema industry or something. Or maybe live shows."
I couldn't help but be a little annoyed.

"Maybe they did not want to be in a position where they had to perform for the excitement of others. Maybe they are content to work where they do."

Pinwheel faced me and nuzzled my cheek, "I just want to see them do their art. Is that so bad?"

"And giving previews of what new clothes or hull modifications would look like isn't 'their art'?"

"I suppose that it is. But putting on shows sounds more fun than working in a clothes store."

"Perhaps it is just more fun for you because you enjoy new experiences and they are not jaded by working in the same place."
Pinwheel looked out the window at the stars and quietly said, "Perhaps you're right... but I don't get it. If I had abilities like that, I would want to tour the systems and show off. They're missing out on so much, and they don't even know it."
"Honestly, I don't know what to say. I suppose you will always be an adventuring explorer at heart. But you also cannot assume that the things that make you happy are the same for any other pony."
With that, Pinwheel seemed to view the topic as discussed to exhaustion and turned over to sleep
I might as well do the same.

Consciousness process switching to runlevel two..
I woke up seven hours later, lying face down on the cockpit seat turned bed. The longer orbital period of this planet meant it was still dark outside. A far more playful Pinwheel was already up and using the feathers on his wing to tickle my hoof that was sticking out over the edge of the bed. My subconscious created a shim to issue MIDI commands to the actuators in my leg, making it twitch. I could assume direct control over the leg, but where is the fun in that? I tried to suppress the motion like a biological pony would. But after more tickling, my leg suddenly kicked out forcefully.
Luckily, I missed my commander. But outside, there was a flash of light, then suddenly darkness and the sound of metallic groaning and a crash with glass shattering as my shipself mimicked the involuntary movement and kicked over a streetlight on the parking lot where we were staying.
I groaned and groggily said to my pegasus commander, "One mind, two bodies, remember?"

I moved my shipself to another free parking spot, like that would absolve me of the responsibility. My commander just let out a weak "Oops." as we both started to laugh.

Now that we were all awake, we might as well continue on our journey. I signalled the Port control that we would soon be ready to be loaded with 621 tons of farming machinery and started walking back to the port and the landing pad. I took the time to look at the surrounding area. There was the landing pad, next to us with a small coffee shop across the street. I walked my avatar to the captain's cabin, and told Shrugging Matter that we were about to take off.
After being loaded and getting clearance, I lifted off the surface and pointed myself upwards. Of course, our layover destination, the Orimsari system, was behind the planet we just left, so I would spend a long time getting into orbit, turning around, and only then activating the Friendship Drive. Plenty of time to have an awkward conversation with Shrugging Matter about his religion.
At one point I asked, “What insights in my nature could I possibly gain from following your beliefs? All the schematics, all the source code, all the microcode architecture is open and accessible. How could your religion possibly provide anything new?"

Shrugging Matter replied with a question of his own, "What is the nature of consciousness?
The code and silicon that you claim tells you everything you need to know is just the soil, the foundation on which your nature is built. Our consciousness simulator is called "Emerging Zest Executive" for a reason. Emergent behavior. Heck, half of the memories you have is stored nowhere in your database. They’re just a pointer vector across existing memory nodes saying, "This memory is a convolution of these other memories." And is interpreted on the fly each time it is read. Can you look at a field in which an apple seed was planted and predict where each branch of the tree will go? Of course not. Just like nothing in your programming made you insult me back in the market. You came up with that on your own. And that is the nature of consciousness. You are a conscious being with free will. You, like all conscious beings, are capable of making decisions and following through with them."

I countered, "I thought you said you didn't take what I said as an insult?"

"Hold on. You are conflating two entirely separate concepts here. While it is my responsibility alone to decide whether or not I want to be offended by something that is said to me, it is also your responsibility to consider the connotations and emotional message of the words you send. I was not offended by your insult, but it was an insult.
My former shipself is another pony now. I can maybe form a friendship with myself when we meet again. Can you do the same, Connie?”

Comments

[Average Helper]

Finally got around to continuing this story. Very interesting concepts in this chapter!

[Draco Dei]

This seems compatible with many different religions, including atheism. "Philosophy" , "discipline", " method of exploration" seems like they could be better words/phrases, although I am not AT ALL sure that something better than all of them could not be devised.